Japanese ferrous scrap export prices to South Korea remained to raise after leading South Oriental EAF mill Hyundai Steel increased its bidding process cost in a current purchase tender, sources in Japan as well as South Korea said Thursday.

South Korea's Hyundai Steel published its quote for Japanese scrap at Yen 17,000/ mt FOB ($149/mt) for H2 quality material, Yen 19,000/ mt FOB for HS quality as well as shredded grade, as well as Yen 19,500/ mt FOB for Shindachi quality.

In addition, the South Korean steel mill used an extra premium of Yen 500/mt for reservations exceeding 6,000 mt, resources in Tokyo and Seoul verified Thursday. These orders were for cargoes for delivery by April 20.

boiler water treatment chemicals examined its once a week H2 scrap rate on Wednesday at Yen 16,500-16,800/ mt FOB Tokyo Bay, up from the previous week's Yen 16,200/ mt FOB.

The suggested mid-point of Yen 16,650/ mt was Yen 450 higher on week.

Hyundai's booking of Japanese scrap late last week went to Yen 16,500/ mt FOB for H2 material, with an additional costs of Yen 300/mt for bookings exceeding 4,000 mt and also Yen 500/mt for those exceeding 6,000 mt.

Traders are uncertain how much tonnage the South Korean mill would be able to buy at Wednesday's bid costs.

A Tokyo-based scrap trader was surprised over Hyundai's most recent quote level. "We believed Hyundai would keep its target price unchanged. However, supplies from the Japanese investors were much higher this moment, so our company believe the company had to lift its deal costs to secure the volume it requires," he said.

Japanese traders are presently intending to sell Japanese H2 at the minimum of Yen 17,500/ mt FOB, up Yen 500/mt from last week.

One more scrap trader in Tokyo claimed that as the supply of scrap for packing onto vessels for export has actually been tight, several investors are most likely to only provide cargoes not exceeding 6,000 mt, so most offers would certainly be occurring at Yen 17,000/ mt FOB, without any volume extra fees.

"The quote prices are still lower than the Japanese investors' target costs so we wonder if Hyundai can secure the volume it expects to," he said.

"Hyundai is trying to raise its scrap purchase volumes from Japan after acknowledging the jump in scrap prices in Turkey," a Seoul-based investor claimed. It was also likely that Hyundai purchased a reduced volume than it had actually planned to recently, he added.